Bombers Chop Down the Lumberjacks

By James Brohm

Sioux Lookout, ON – Game two of the weekend series against the visiting Wisconsin Lumberjack was much of the same from the Sioux Lookout Bombers. After giving up two points to the North Stars on Thursday, the bombers bounced back with a convincing 7-1 win on Friday and continued to dominate in tonight’s contest.

The Bombers and Lumberjacks traded chances and goals in the first period with goals from Owen Riffel (SLB), Connor Hacker (WIS), Tait Howell (SLB) and Caden Sutter (WIS). Both teams had decent starts from their respective goaltenders. Ethan Penner got his second start of the weekend for the Bombers giving Jake Manners another well-deserved break. William Forrester would step in between the pipes for the visiting Lumberjacks.

The second period was all Bombers on the scoreboard with six unanswered goals for the home team. Peter Zilkalns scored his first as a Bomber at 4:31. Blake Burke netted his team-leading 12th of the season a couple minutes later. Nathan Dann would score short-handed goal on a great forechecking effort and feed from Ty Bahm. Graham Patrick posted the sixth Bombers’ goal and Dann would follow up with two more for the hattrick before the end of the period.

Showing no signs of slowing down, Nathan Dann buried his fourth of the game just 1:37 into the third period. Ty Bahm and Alex Lucas would get two more quick ones around the seven-and-a-half-minute mark of the third period. It was too late for the comeback, but Caden Sutter scored his second of the game with less than a minute left in the game. The Bombers skate away with a 11-3 victory and outscoring the Lumberjacks 18-4 on the weekend.

The Bombers’ win, combined with a Miner’s loss, bumps the Bombers up to second place in the SIJHL. Both teams have 28 points, but Sioux Lookout has two games in hand. The Lumberjacks stay put in sixth place with 17 points on the season.

Next games for Sioux Lookout are a home-and-home against the Ice Dogs. First, Friday at the Dog Pound in Dryden and then back at the Hangar on Saturday for the final game before the Christmas Break. The Wisconsin Lumberjacks have a date with Fort Frances Lakers tomorrow night on their way home.